The EVF answer? TVLogic EVF035W-3G

somebody sing out if they see one of the alphatrons in the wild.

please and thank you.
 
Abel Cine called me today to confirm I still wanted mine, but they don't expect to have them until early August, and that's tentative.
 
It seems overhere some people ar allowed to test them but it runs kindda hot.
looks like it needs a bit more tweaking.
good things are worth waiting for
 
I am due to receive mine today from lemac in oz. (where I am)
Im shooting with an fs700. Happy to do a few tests and/or report back on the production model.
Anything anyone wants to know or I should look out for?
 
i think your impressions ought to cover it for me; ease and certainty of focus and exposure, solidity of mount points... does it work, and work well?
 
This Alphatron is beginning to look suspiciously like the Birger Canon adaptor. Pre-order in January, pushed to end of May, then end of June, then end of July, and now August. The Alphatron rep was even on here a few weeks ago saying they'd ship by now. I know a bunch of people who are buying SmallHD and Zacuto because they can't wait. I've already had to subrent a number of times while waiting for this thing to finally ship...
 
This I'm afraid, is a growing trend... I think some of it comes from the companies investing in a new project, then telling everyone about it early to gauge whether or not it will be worth their while to produce said project and to cover the investment. Then they say, hey everyone wants it, now lets build a 1000 units. Then comes production delays, which constantly change. Then plus, add in the internet with misinformation from sources and the sales teams...

They have to act fast and early in this war for consumers and now, and we are paying the price "emotionally" with stress.... If we never knew about something, until it was in the store this would be a non issue. (unless we talk about selling units that aren't ready for real work, due to bugs not being tested out. But that's a whole other topic...which is growing too.)
 
Along the same lines, has anyone "pre-ordered" the SmallHD DP 7 which is not an EVF but a small onboard monitor that is supposed to have many interesting features? They are accepting $100 refundable deposits and plan to have availability later this year. One version is a 1000 nit brightness which is supposed to work great outdoors meaning you might not need an EVF. I am wondering if this might be a better option than the Alphatron since it also has scopes, etc. Currently I have a Cineroid, which is OK but could be better. Again, who knows when it will really be available.
 
Well, one use of an EVF is protected sunlight viewing. but there are some cheap hood/loupe options for that (I still have my old hood/sock loupe from my EX1, works with the F3). But for shoulder work, a 7" screen is going to be really different than an EVF. The shoulder work is why i want the Alphatron.
 
Only speaking only for myself, the trend you see is real but not malicious or manipulative IMHO. There is a very tough path from an idea to a real product for any company. For small manufactures that keep our little world of production going it is even more challenging. The market is finicky, the expectations are high, price has to be low, and the volume is low. For companies that are in the business of inventing new things - it is remarkably hard to know what you don't know and there is not a team of engineers that can bail the project out if something bad happens during the design, prototyping, or production of a product. With that said, we typically make a best guess at a release because the marketing must begin well ahead of the release date. Knowing that the tiniest problem can stall the project for a month, we have to set a target. It is safe to say that any manufacture is losing extraordinary amounts of money for every day of delay. When we have a delay issue - it becomes a 24/7 fire alarm until we solve it. We have been in full development of a system for F65 for 8 months and are just now getting a clear sense of when it will be ready. I think that most companies spell out dates that they think are genuine possibilities, but always knowing it could change dramatically.

I have nothing at all to do with Alphatron, but I can only imagine that they are all busting their humps to get product out the door that is reliable and impressive. It does no good to push it out fast only to have critical issues force a recall and an army of angry customers approaching with pitch forks. I have no real defense for missed deadlines, but just encourage all to understand that this is a small industry supported by small companies. Some patience is unfortunately required.

FYI: Airbus and Boeing miss deadlines by many years. I am glad we generally only deal with months of delays.
 
"Some patience is unfortunately required." Exactly!

And for great and innovative companies like yours, I'm happy to wait. And thank you, for taking that chance and risking "your" money to build a company with cool products, on your own. And we do appreciate you and your team's hard work.
Bottom line we are all just gear geeks, that are flooded with all this great stuff, that we want in our hot hands as soon as we see it.
 
Got it! In my hands.
Very nice. Build quality is solid, picture is outstanding.

I get that feeling I'm sure common with most?/all? When looking down the tube that I am using one of those early 90's virtual reality helmets Where you stand in a ring with a helmet on, where there is a slight delay from your movements and your vision. Without the tube not so much

The menu fonts as you turn functions off/on from alister's review seem to have changed from wargames new roman red to the rest of the menu font in white and retained the height of the screen by overlaying on the picture which is nice (could be a mode thing). It's getting quite hot quite quickly however you are obviously not holding it most of the time.

i noticed in user mode at first it seemed like there was a row of white pixels at the bottom of the screen. Soon found the calibration and took 640 vertical down the 639 and it disappeared. After using it for a while, and other menus, noticed it again, went to 638, then later again 637. All good. Weird.

I concur with alister's review the cosmetic battery cover may come off. It didnt seem as loose as his review, so maybe they made some tweaks, maybe not. The smallest battery I had on hand was too big for it, need to get a smaller one.

I guess I'll be using the d-tap rigged up and on my steadicam flyer most often so maybe not an issue. Did I miss the battery meter/level somewhere?
i guess 9.6 watts / battery capacity = runtime?

I have no expectations of runtime vs battery capacities. Guess I'll find out...

For my cam fs700 when hitting expanded focus on the cam, doesn't translate to doing so on the evf. To be expected I guess.
hitting pixel to pixel mode on the evf gives a very nice zoom it and it is super sharp and clear. Wow!

I am really going to have some fun with the range error settings I think. Setting it to blink areas of luma and chroma above and below a min/max I think is going to be right on when I am doing something quickly and miss a setting or something, great reminder. Setting is between 0-255, any suggestions for starting points?

Happy to field any questions. I feel so dirty I only decided to get an evf with this fs700 and decided two weeks ago when I first heard of the white unicorn that is the alphatron while everyone's been waiting. . For me two weeks wait was pretty quick! (yes I've been under a rock)? I simply knew having hdmi and Sdi was the right move, it may well outlast the next cam upgrade, I can loan it if I'm working on a shoot with someone else b cam and they whip out something else, someone will have a cheaper hdmi only monitor I can loop out to instead of telling them their gear is to low ball. When you can get this nice screen and both inputs... Why not?

Reading the Later comments here reminds me of waiting for a red rock micro remote follow focus. I think it's been a few years now ;)

I've been waiting for some more reviews of mounts before getting something.

Anyway, in this case, the unicorn is a Pegasus, and I think It's spread it's wings. It's pretty sweet!
I think people will be rewarded here for hanging on.
 
You can blame some of the delays on me.

A little history:
Alphatron originally showed us the EVF last year in prototype form. When they felt they were far enough along to make an announcement, we and they went live with information in January, stating then that we expected an NAB-timeframe release. That soon got pushed into May. When we saw the initial operational prototypes in April we had some specific suggestions, and that pushed release to mid June. I had a fully functional test unit at CineGear in the first week of June. When I saw it I had some very specific feedback on what I felt were important functions for clients. Alphatron took my and other testers' comments seriously and worked to address them, but that meant delaying the release longer, now into July.

The units have begun to ship. They are manufactured in South Korea, and I guess the boat to Australia is faster than the ones to the US or Europe. That's why Tim got his hands on one sooner. We will have them in hand soon and out to our clients.
 
JDDalllas said:
"Some patience is unfortunately required." Exactly!

And for great and innovative companies like yours, I'm happy to wait. And thank you, for taking that chance and risking "your" money to build a company with cool products, on your own. And we do appreciate you and your team's hard work.
Bottom line we are all just gear geeks, that are flooded with all this great stuff, that we want in our hot hands as soon as we see it.
Click to expand...

no disrespect, Jason, but i don't agree that that's the bottom line. i don't mean to be argumentative, but i'd like to clarify; the manufacturers' realities are what they are, i'm not suggesting they're doing me wrong. the reason i'm impatient is because i don't want to have to reach for the ex3 or a 5d on my next job when it comes time to shoot handheld. the sooner i have a real solution that allows handheld with the f3, the sooner i can get those (better) shots and make money off the greater versatility of the camera. until then i have a great camera that i can't be confident in using for some of the things i'm called on to do. if the product i'm waiting on doesn't look like it's going to arrive any time soon i may have to put my money into something that doesn't work as well. since i have only had the camera a few months (and it hasn't paid for itself yet), i have to be smart about how i fill out the package.
 
MPB said:
i have to be smart about how i fill out the package.
Click to expand...

They don't call it show BUSINESS for nothing. We all have to make a living at it if we are truly professionals. I spent a huge part of my career (nearly 20 years) owning a rental co and shooting anything and everything. I never once got paid for gear that did not exist. I was also penalized by sub-renting when something did not show up on time. I am totally a gear geek and I love this work, but I am also a business man. A bad choice on gear purchase can sting pretty bad. A good choice can push you to the next level. The things you really want will probably never show up fast enough, so you have balance today's reality with your hopes for the future upgrades. If waiting for an upcoming product is keeping me from working - I would likely look for an interim solution. If I can still do my work - I would just wait for the new thing. It's not always a black and white decision.
 
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